It Pays to Read the News
by DemonKittyAngel
Summary: Ace helps Marco sort through some bounty posters and finds an impossible bounty that may just lead to a miracle. Reunion/ASL bros/Ace-needs-a-hug Alternatively: Ace finds Sabo's wanted poster and struggles to believe that good things can happen


_So, I saw a fic where Luffy finds Sabo's bounty and then everything is happy and nothing hurts. (_ Sabo's Wanted Poster _by_ Thisisarealtagwhy _) It's utterly adorable and I said to myself, 'If Luffy can find Sabo's bounty, then Ace can damn well find it himself!'_

 _So this happened. ^^_

 _I own nothing and hope everyone enjoys!_

* * *

Ace stared at the paper in his hands. _(It couldn't be, He was just deluding himself, There was no way-)_ A top hat that he could never forget took up half of the bounty poster in front of him. It shouldn't have mattered to him; top hats were rare but not unheard of. Vista wore a top hat and it didn't mean anything special so there was no reason for _this_ hat to stand out to him other than the oddity of having goggles snug above the brim.

It wasn't like only one person in the entire world would ever do such a thing.

Ignoring his hammering heart, Ace turned to Marco, expertly sorting the new set of bounties into enemies, allies, up-and-comers, Whitebeards, and extraneous others. He had joined the crew only four months previously and had only spent eight months in the New World. There was a lot he still didn't know and this was just one more question, like all the others, so he can know just a little more about the oceans around him. _(It wasn't important, It wasn't vital that he found out, He didn't_ _ **need**_ _-)_

"Hey Marco?" There was no waver in his voice, right? Did it come out too high or too low? Ace couldn't tell and it was too late to take back regardless. "I was wondering about the Revolutionaries. I know they exist but I don't really know anything about them." If he had started shaky, he sounded fairly nonchalant by the end.

He _really_ hoped he hadn't sounded as shaky as he felt.

 _(It was just a dumb thought, An illusion, The optimistic high he'd been riding since finding a new family-)_

Marco glanced over the poster Ace had a death grip on. He willed his fingers to relax; to stop being so fricken' obvious! But the digits were locked and it was too late to pretend anyway.

"The Revolutionaries are a secretive bunch. They mainly fight against the World Government and Navy so we don't keep up with them very closely – yoi. We exchange bits of information now and then but mostly they stick to themselves." The answer was simple, straight forward.

Marco hadn't read into any of that, right? He wasn't suspicious. It wasn't like Ace had gone crazy or asked something inappropriate. Just personal. Not that Marco could know.

The tattoo on his shoulder taunted him with its permanent reminder but Marco surprised him when he pointed to the bounty in question. "This kid in particular has been showing up the last few years. From the Revolutionaries I've talked to, I hear he has a personal grudge."

Marco's finger laid right above the gnarled scar marring the left eye of what was otherwise a handsome and aristocratic face.

A burn scar. Ace would know. He was fire after all; he knew what marks he left behind.

 _(Wasn't there an explosion?, Wouldn't it make sense if-)_

No. No no no **no** **NO**. He couldn't let himself hope. He couldn't be like Luffy and cling to some miraculous luck that would make everything turn out ok.

Marco went back to his sorting and Ace forced himself to let go of the crumpled sides of the too familiar visage _–of hope–_ and smoothed out the bounty of 'Revolutionary: Blue Gentleman'.

A month passed with the poster _–the possibility–_ never far from his mind. Marco let him know that a Revolutionary would be dropping by to exchange information. Not an invitation; nor a warning. Just a simple, 'This is happening' and left Ace to his thoughts.

Marco had noticed but he'd never pried.

Warmth gathered around his heart in gratefulness even as indecision churned his stomach.

Should he ask? Should he send a message? Was he being delusional? Should he stop clinging to the _stupid,_ _ **impossible**_ thought that the world didn't hate him? Hadn't taken his first and best friend for eternity? That he was allowed a second chance?

Delusional. That would never happen.

But he had to know.

His feet moved without his heart's consent, locating Marco by the starboard lifeboats talking to a slim girl with an eggplant ponytail.

Ace paused, just taking them in.

 _(If it was possible, If he dared to hope, If the world for_ _ **just one minute-**_ _)_

He hastily detoured to Marco's office and found the haunting poster lain on the center of the desk. Stupid turkey… He snatched it up and rushed back to the clandestine meeting.

"…we'll be sure to keep an eye on that." Marco says and the girl just nods.

"Hey, you." Ace got their attention and jogged a few steps so he was right in front of them. "This poster," He held it up, pointed at the ghost, and shoved it in her face. "This guy, tell me his name."

 _(And he could be wrong, He could be completely wrong, His name could be anything and then Ace could stop hoping and-)_

"I'm not telling you." Her answer was firm and her eyes lit with a protective fire. If this was Sabo, Ace was glad he'd found a trustworthy comrade. Even if it wasn't, he respected her loyalty.

"His name is Sabo, isn't it?" Her defensiveness was swept away by surprise and Marco stood supportively off to the side, letting Ace do this. _(And he_ _ **knows**_ _, This can't be a coincidence, Sabo really is-)_

He clamped down on his hope _–suffocating joy–_ and looked her fiercely in the eye. "Tell him-" his words dried up and his mind went blank. He'd never planned for this. He never considered what he'd say to his dead brother on the off chance they could meet again. Even with this sliver of possibility, he hadn't let himself consider what he'd do if this were real. He licked his lips nervously and said the first thing that came to mind. "Tell him he's an asshole and that he owes me seven years of babysitting."

Because raising Luffy should have been a job between the both of them.

The girl, barely a teenager, regarded him warily. He could almost see the cogs in her head turning, trying to find a threat or a hidden message, before slowly nodding. It wasn't a threat nor was it an easily cracked code. It was a message that only Sabo could decipher and Ace prayed that he was right; that this wasn't some cosmic joke at his expense – because he'd give anything to have this be real.

* * *

Two weeks later, a tall man in a top hat jumped off a giant raven as if he'd been invited. He had black dress pants tucked into solid leather boots and a white dress shirt covered by a richly textured forest green jacket with a neatly folded cravat all under an open black trench coat that cut at his knees.

"Good day." He tipped his hat cordially at the defensive pirates as if he hadn't just intruded on the ship of a Yonko. "My name is Sabo of the Revolutionary Army and I've come to tell Fire Fist Ace that I am not an asshole and that if he still requires a babysitter at this age, he has plenty of options from among his own crew."

Ace flushed to match one of Luffy's shirts and grit his teeth. Sabo… after all this time, he showed up acting like the smartass prick he'd always been; as if nothing has changed – as if they saw each other yesterday and there was nothing unusual about their meeting. He stomped forward, his crewmates letting him through to the man who had just called him out in a rather humiliating way. He was sure they thought he was going to pummel this guy (and yeah, he probably will), but there were more important matters.

Such as him being alive.

Emerging from the crowd, any thought of putting Sabo in his place flew out the window as Ace caught sight of the massive burn on his brother's face. He hadn't noticed on the poster- No, that was wrong. He had _refused_ to consider that if this was Sabo, if this was his brother, this would be the proof that he almost died. He can see more scarring run down the side of his neck and under his collar. His heart constricts in agony at the sight and he wonders how far they might go and how close his brother had truly come to dying.

"Perhaps he does need a babysitter if he's so stumped that someone would come to fight him after insulting said person's honor." It was a casual, superior tone that spoke of arrogant nobility and Ace wondered when Sabo had stopped thoroughly rejecting everything the world nobles stood for enough to adopt their style of speech.

This was followed by outrage at what a tremendous shithead he was being. "You fucking asshole! You show up after eight years only to act like your parents!?" His body moved on instinct and while Sabo's eyes flew wide, Ace smothered him in a bone crushing hug. "Where they hell have you been!? Why did you never come home!?" Ace knew he was on the verge of tears. He knew his family was watching. But this, right here, having his brother right in front of him-

Ace never believed in miracles. At least not for himself.

"Ah, I'm… sorry?" It was unsure and _**clearly**_ Sabo doesn't understand that they've been mourning him all this time.

"We thought you were dead." He tightened his grip and refused to register that no arms had risen to hold him back. "Dogra saw your ship go down and we all thought you-" Ace choked, unwilling to say it. Especially with his brother _–alive!–_ right in front of him. "How could you just leave us like that?! How could you stay away from Luffy? How could you let us think you were-!" His voice strangled out and it didn't matter.

It was too much. It was **all** too much. And Sabo… still wasn't holding him back. In fact, Ace pulled back to look at his face, Sabo seemed petrified.

"I… believe we should continue this in private. Ace, I… I don't remember. From your message I suspected, but…" There was no recognition in Sabo's eyes and ice bit at Ace's fiery core. This… this couldn't be…

But it would make so much sense.

 _(Why he never came back, why there wasn't so much as a letter, why he never came looking for Ace-)_

Ace backed off of this _stranger_ who had taken his brother's place. This- It can't- It just-

Without a word he grabbed Sabo's hand and dragged him off to his cabin. This time, Sabo gripped back.

Door closed, Sabo gingerly took a place on Ace's bed (and that was _wrong_ because they're brothers and everything that belongs to Ace belonged to Sabo) and Ace pulled the chair out of his desk.

The silence lasted for two solid minutes before Sabo broke it in tired tones.

"After the explosion… I didn't know anything. Well, that's not true. I knew that I never wanted to go back to my parents. But I'd always hoped… Always wondered if there was someone out there looking for me; who missed me and wanted me to come back. But that was just childish thinking, right? After all, I hated my parents and wanted to escape. How could there be anything to go back to?"

Ace took his time ordering his thoughts; making sure he knew _exactly_ what he wanted to say this time. Ace couldn't bring himself to look at his (not?) brother and spoke quietly to the floor. "You hated your parents… which is why you didn't live with them." He glanced up and found a curiosity tinged with desperation that tore away the years that the scar had added to his brother's face. "You lived in the forest, with me and Luffy – our little brother. We took care of him and raised him as best we could. We stole from whoever we could and put it away in our pirate fund. We fought and hunted and… and we were brothers."

"So I owe you seven years…"

"Of babysitting Luffy. We could barely keep track of him between the two of us and when it was just me…" Ace shook his head slowly. "I'm honestly amazed that I managed to keep him alive."

"But you'd never let anything happen to him." Sabo said it so surely, like it was a fact of the universe, that for a moment Ace thought he had his brother back.

Instead he snorted. "I wouldn't _let_ _it_ but when it comes to Luffy he'll try to befriend a poisonous snake. I wouldn't be surprised if when he builds his own pirate crew in a couple years at least one of them will have tried to kill him at some point."

"Like you did?" Ace snapped his head up and Sabo looked just as surprised to have said it as Ace was to have heard it. It was a low blow and one Sabo often liked to taunt Ace with, but-

Instead of his customary dirty look, a slow smile spread across Ace's face. "You remember…"

A lightning fast thought later, a similar grin pulled at his brother's lips. "I suppose I must. Please, tell me more. I want to know everything." And like a barrier had been ripped away, Sabo made himself comfortable by pulling his legs onto the bed, boots and all, and crossing them like when they were kids. Ace would be annoyed with the boots if he wasn't so damn happy that things were finally how they should be with Sabo sharing Ace's space as if he owned it himself.

 _~Omake~_

Despite Sabo arriving midmorning, neither was seen again until halfway through dinner.

They came through the galley doors laughing with arms swung over each other's shoulders – a far sight from the awkward pseudo-reunion of that morning.

"Thatch! We need to celebrate!" Ace cheered raising many an eyebrow. "My brother is alive!"

Muttering kicked up wondering just how this kid was related to their newest brother.

Rumors had been running rampant all day about why Ace had been so elated to see such a monumental jerk and why Ace had thought he was dead, but none of them had suspected this. Marco had stood guard at the end of the corridor to the second division's quarters after clearing them out so that no one could eaves drop. Was it a close friend? A best friend who he'd lost touch with years ago?

Brother? The idea had been dismissed as preposterous. When they'd gotten Ace drunk and he'd finally opened up about his family (mainly his little brother Luffy), he would have mentioned if he had anyone else. He'd mentioned 'Shitty Gramps' and 'mountain bandits' only in passing but had mentioned them none the less.

Then again, if Ace thought his brother was dead for _eight_ _years_ … maybe it wasn't such a surprise that their closed off brother hadn't said anything. They were pirates; there was more left unsaid about their histories than they would ever share together.

It was Haruta who caught onto a small detail the rest had overlooked. "Hey, Ace? Is that what the 'S' in your tattoo was for?"

The room went from quiet murmurs to silence in record time.

Ace flushed an adorable shade of red, hating being called out, and for once didn't attempt to incinerate anyone for bringing it up.

"Tattoo?" The Revolutionary questioned. Ace took his arm away from the blonde and showed him the oft made fun of tattoo. A tentative hand came up to brush the crossed out S and it was heartbreaking as the crew realized that the 'incorrect' spelling had been a memorial all along. "My old pirate flag…"

"Yeah, well… You didn't get the chance to be a pirate…" He muttered bashfully.

Such a heart wrenching, beautiful reunion…

…was promptly ruined by the boy it was meant to honor.

"BWAHAHAHAHA! Oh, G-d! I can't help it! You just- YOU'RE SUCH A SAP! HAHHAA! Oh, G-d, I can't breathe! HAHAHA! You seriously- *pfft* misspelled your name, on purpose, just so you could, 'Carry me with you?' HAHAHA! What happened to making sure everyone knew your name? Decided it needed more flare? AHAAHAHAA!"

Flames started licking the hot head's shoulders and the smarter pirates readied themselves for the oncoming storm.

"SABO-! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" A punch was thrown and easily evaded. Then another. Then a kick. Then another punch.

All while Sabo continued to laugh uproariously at his brother's tattoo. "You're such a sap!"

"Haarh!" A fire ball was launched from his fist and the Whitebeard's busied themselves with rearranging the tables to give the two space to fight.

It was masterful. Every hit was evaded like it was a dance. Every feint was seen through and bypassed. Every block was countered and then reverse countered without a single thought put into it. It was the kind of fight that only happened between comrades who knew each other and how they moved on a soul deep level. A few of them wondered: 'If the two of them fought together, would a spot be left open for Luffy as well?'

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that they were truly brothers once Ace finally managed to snag Sabo's cravat and the two descended into a sloppy wrestling match.

Oyaji's warm laughter rang through the galley alongside his sons as one of their brothers was reunited with a brother of his own.

* * *

-The End-

 _For those wondering, Sabo spends a couple of days and while he doesn't get a memory dump like in canon, he wakes up the next day with a splitting headache and a majority. He gets little bits more and more over the next month until he finally remembers everything._

 _And then he fully realizes the horror that is Luffy setting sail to be a pirate. And since he owes Ace seven years of babysitting, every bit of trouble Luffy finds is on his head. Muahahaha!_

 _(He's going to lose his fucking mind with worry. Shihihi.)_

Thank you for reading!

 _Favorite, comment, or subscribe (although the last makes no sense since this is a one-shot…) to let me know what you guys think!_


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